


Distortion

by Laenix



Category: Social Network (2010)
Genre: Abusive Relationship, Body Image, Community: tsn_kinkmeme, Control Issues, Dysfunctional Relationships, Emotional Abuse, Jealousy, M/M, Mental Abuse, Not A Fix-It, Not Happy, Self-Esteem, sean is a little biphobic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-17
Updated: 2013-01-17
Packaged: 2017-11-25 19:59:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/642437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laenix/pseuds/Laenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was in a response to an anonymous tsn_kinkmeme prompt:<br/>"To anyone on the outside, Eduardo seems loving, doting, and pretty much dick-whipped by Mark.<br/>In private, he's the total opposite."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distortion

**Author's Note:**

> I posted it anonymously on the kinkmeme bc it was my first fill and I was nerrrvvves.
> 
> Is this called de-anon-ing? Or whatever.
> 
> I love happyfic, by the way. I should prove it sometime.
> 
> Edit: I noticed reading back on this years later that there's a small section of implied biphobia in here. I apologize for the implications of what I wrote at the time. They in no way reflect my beliefs now.

“Tell Dustin I’m sorry about this.”

“Oh, Wardo, it’s not your fault. Tell Mark I hope he gets better. Honestly, he needs to take better care of himself. I know you try hard to help him, but he needs to be more proactive about his health.”

Wardo chuckles into the phone. “Yeah, but you know Mark. He’ll always be like this. I had to make sure he wasn’t re-wearing a dirty sweater twice this week. ”

“I don’t know where Mark would be without you,” Chris says appreciatively. On his end of the phone there is a loud explosion and the sound of some of the other guys cheering. Eduardo isn’t really sure he wants to ask and doubts Chris would be comfortable explaining.

“’Kay, you guys have a great night. Tell Dustin to enjoy his last night out of bachelordom for me,” Eduardo says.

There’s another explosion, followed by a louder round of cheering.  
“I don’t think he needs telling. Bye Wardo.”

After he hangs up Eduardo turns to join Mark, who is leaning with one elbow on the kitchen table as he prods at his mac and cheese. Mark looks up and says, “You didn’t have to do that. Say I was sick. I wasn’t going to go.”

“I know,” Eduardo agrees. “You don’t even want to. I just didn’t want them to worry.”

“Worry that you’re mad at me?”

Eduardo laughs warmly. “You think I’m mad? I’m just looking out for you.”

“Wardo,” Mark says quietly. 

“I don’t know what Dustin was thinking, inviting him to his bachelor party.”

“Dustin and Sean became friends.” Mark words it carefully. “It’s not his fault.”

Eduardo wipes a spot of cheese off of Mark’s face with a napkin and throws it in the trash. “Are you done with your food?” He takes their bowls and brings it to the sink.

Mark sits there for a minute. “Do you want me to help with the dishes?”

Eduardo sighs, looking over his shoulder at Mark. “Mark, I’m not angry. You don’t have to help me just because you’re feeling guilty. Besides, you’d break a plate or something again. Just go up to our room and do your computer thing, I’ll be up in a few.”

\- 

“ – you don’t have friends –”

Mark blinked, his fingers frozen over his keyboard. “What?”

Eduardo tossed the neon pink rubber ball (which Dustin got from one of Macy’s $0.25 toy vending machines) at the ceiling as he reclined on Mark’s bed. He slid his gaze over to Mark who was looking up from his desktop. 

Eduardo’s lips twitched. “It’d be hard to get into a final club if you don’t have friends in the right places,” he repeated. ‘They’re exclusive, after all. But they lead to a better life.” He shrugged. “You know, I guess you could try getting into one of the easier ones…”

-

The wedding is huge, as expected of the youngest, most enthusiastic billionaire in the world. Mark is sitting at a table with a glass of white champagne.

Eduardo is talking to Dustin’s financial rep of an automotive marketing company cousin, and Mark is envious of his ability to socialize so easily. Dustin’s cousin is a pretty lady with curly red hair, a deep purple dress, and silver heels. Mark knows what jealousy feels like. But his stomach flutters with nervousness, instead of tightens with petty discontent. His insecurity is tinged with more fear than anger. 

He doesn’t want to dwell on it, so he looks away. It’s both a relief and an annoyance when Sean Parker drops himself into the chair beside him.

“So you come here often?” he says silkily.

Mark rolls his eyes. “It’s a banquet hall, not a bar. Shouldn’t you be going after one of those love-deprived bridesmaids?”

“I’m letting them stir in their jealousy as they watch the bride and her doting husband,” Sean deadpans. He gestures over at Dustin, whose puppy-like eyes and huge smile are completely honed in on his wife. “Besides, with you playing the little wallflower over here, I couldn’t resist. Why are you here when your hot piece of Brazilian conquest is aaalll the way across the room?”

Mark looks away, uncomfortable with Sean’s wording. “He’s giving Alicia advice about her suggested business plan. I don’t want to bother them.”

Sean looks over. “As long as Eduardo is bisexual,” he says slowly, “and as long as those breasts continue to defy gravity, I have no idea why you wouldn’t want bother them.”

Mark’s eyes flicker over to Sean, then back forward. “I trust him.”

There’s a moment of silence, and Sean’s amusement falters. “Hey,” he says. “I’m joking, you know that, right?”

“Yeah. It’s just, I’m pretty sure Wardo’s an ass person.”

Sean snickers, and raises up his glass – it’s a coke – and though Mark only moves his a couple inches, they clink together. “A toast to your fine ass. In Wardo’s opinion, of course.”

In only Wardo’s opinion, Mark thinks.

He looks up when he feels Sean wrap an arm around his shoulder. “I just realized I haven’t told you about how incredibly gay you are in a long time. Why haven’t I seen you in a while?”

Mark shrugs. “I’ve been with Wardo.”

“And he still doesn’t like the home wrecker. Gotcha.” 

Mark doesn’t mean to make a face, revealing how close to home Sean’s joke was. He hopes it goes unnoticed, but Sean’s arm tenses around him. “Mark?”

“What?”

“You know I’m, like, 89.6% heterosexual, right? And that I’m mostly a chest guy? You’re a bit too skinny and pale for me.” It’s another joke, but it’s also another criticism of Eduardo’s, and Sean doesn’t know that but his voice is strained with concern.

“Mark,” Sean says again, his voice uncomfortably serious. “Is… Eduardo telling you you’re not allowed to see me?”

Mark feels tense. Sick. His heart is beating fast, and he doesn’t understand why. “It’s not – I agreed to it too.”

Sean frowns, and Mark doesn’t mean to hurt him, but it’s unavoidable. He’s tactless, and he’s not good with people. That’s why only Wardo can tolerate him, whereas Sean will just get upset and leave.

But Sean says, “You can’t let him do that, Mark. You have to make him understand that – I’m your friend. It’s not fair to make you choose. That’s not – that’s not healthy.” He’s leaning his head close to Mark’s, his voice lowered.

Eduardo looks over then, and narrows his eyes at the sight of Sean’s arm wrapped around Mark, whispering in his ear.

Mark abruptly shoves Sean away. “What, so you of all people are here to give me relationship advice? How’s Melinda, by the way?” 

Melinda was Sean’s last girlfriend, who dumped him after she learned he was in the middle of a twelve-step program. He wouldn’t have gotten as far as he is now without Dustin and Chris’ help. Mark wishes he could say that he helped too, but he stayed away for Eduardo. And he’s never been a good friend anyway.

He doesn’t look at Sean’s face, but he hears his sharp intake of breath. “Guess I’ll go talk to one of those bridesmaids now,” Sean mutters, and Mark lets him leave.

-

Eduardo and Mark walked out of the bathroom together, coming down from their moment of euphoria. 

“That was… incredible,” Eduardo breathed.

Mark nodded. “Yeah.”

“And hey, look at you, you scored with Alice, huh?” He grinned, nudging Mark. “You’re welcome.”

“What?”

“Well, since Alice saw Christy all over me, she probably wanted to make it a contest and show her up,” Eduardo clarified. “That’s the only explanation I can think of, anyway.”

Mark looked down, his small smile stuck in place. That’s the only explanation he could think of, too.

-

“Mark!” Eduardo pulls the headphones roughly off of Mark’s head. “What the hell?”

He jumps at the sudden action, and looks up at Eduardo in confusion.

Eduardo shakes the headphones, frowning. “I thought you quit this ‘wired in’ stuff years ago.”

“I still have to code.” Granted, he coded a lot less recently, since being a CEO of a big company meant getting more paperwork and PR crap than not, and having to distribute the hands-on stuff to the lower ranks. Somewhere along the line, Mark had become more separated from the company he created. When a glitch popped up in one of the new updates, Mark eagerly took up the project. He had been working on it for the last two weeks and had been at it for ten hours today. He must have gotten into it too much he realizes, looking up at Eduardo’s upset face.

“I don’t like it. I called you for like twenty minutes. Dinner’s cold.”

“Sorry,” Mark says, moving to save his work, but suddenly Eduardo moves to slam the laptop shut and Mark barely pulls his hands back in time.

“Don’t say sorry if you don’t mean it,” Eduardo bites out, before dropping the headphones on the floor and marching out.

-

“So she lit my bed on fire because I – I don’t know, I didn’t change my relationship status or something.” Eduardo leaned back against the bean bag, beer in hand.

Mark couldn’t help but smirk in amusement, and Eduardo glared sulkily at him for it. “Hey,” Mark said, “Don’t blame me if you forgot to do something like that. People really care about Facebook statuses now.” A bit of pride welled up in him at the thought.

“I didn’t forget,” Eduardo said, pouting. “I just don’t know how.”

Mark froze. “You what?”

“I don’t know to change my relationship status. I’m not on the website that much.”

Mark stared at him. “I showed it to you. Right before we finished the site. I told – you said it was – you said.” He stopped there, realizing with embarrassment how desperate his voice sounded. It was just.

Eduardo replied dismissively, “I don’t know, I was just glad you were making progress. It’s not really that important anyway, right?” He started to feel a little irritated. He was the CFO, not some sort of beta tester.

Mark’s eyes flickered away. “I guess.” 

-

It’s always Mark who screws it up. Whether he stays at the office too long, or drops one of the plates, or doesn’t button up his shirt the right way, or embarrasses Eduardo in front of his colleagues. Eduardo doesn’t scream, and he doesn’t hit things and break things. Not except that one time.

He just… just tells the truth. Mark needs that. Mark needs Eduardo to remind him, or else he’ll continue doing everything wrong. 

Mark doesn’t call Chris for help because Chris will tell him to ask Eduardo what’s wrong, and Eduardo already tells him. Mark doesn’t call Dustin for help because Dustin will tell Mark to find a way to prove his love and Mark tries. It sometimes works and it sometimes leaves Eduardo crying.

Sometimes Eduardo leaves. Never for more than a night, but it’s enough for Mark to lie on his side of the bed, stare at Eduardo’s side, and relive all the ways he fucked things up. If he’d just done things differently…

His phone is at 4%. The little red rectangle blinks at him. He doesn’t know where his charger is. He doesn’t wonder where his charger is. When is the last time he charged it? Probably a week ago. When is the last time he used it to talk to anyone? 

Mark lies there, clutching the phone. He doesn’t know what he wants to use it for, but every time the screen goes black, he presses a button and it lights up again, expectant. 

At 3% he scrolls through his contacts. Names fly past, and he doesn’t stop at a single one. He doesn’t want to talk. He doesn’t want to tell. Every thirty seconds he nudges the screen into lighting up, and he does this till he can’t anymore.  
So he’ll just wait for Wardo. 

-

“I was your only friend.” Eduardo trembled in the way Mark forced himself not to. 

Mark felt the entire room tense with discomfort, pity, shame, condemnation. Mark felt the moment when he lost. Everyone, including him, thought it. You asshole. Sy was going through the motions, trying to minimize the damage Mark had caused. 

“You had one friend.” 

It was accusing – “You betrayed your best friend, you asshole.”

It was mocking – “You had one person who gave a shit about you and look how you fucked it up.”

It was comforting – “You’re a fuck-up, but at least at one point in your life you had someone who bothered to care.” 

It was a promise – “No one else.”


End file.
